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Supercharging Idling Fee

As some of you are probably aware by now, Tesla is going to start charging people if they leave their car at a supercharger after the car has been fully charged. The owners will incur a $3.10/min charge 5 mins after the car is fully charged. There is no limit in terms of the levy and an owner will have to pay it at their next service appointment. Personally, I think it's a great idea. I don't use super chargers much (only twice since I bought the car about 3 months ago) and one of the reasons has been the unavailability. I'm just interested in your views about whether you think it'll make any appreciable change in Hong Kong. Will it make the situation better or will we still have long lines at the superchargers?

I think Idle Fees do help abit and in fact should probably be even higher to really stop the abusers / disrepectful Tesla owners ( yes unfortunately not all Tesla Owners are decent). It's probably the only realistic option to 'make it happen'. I would even go one step further and if any idiot who continues to do so, upon coming back say a 2nd time after incurring the idle fee, is that the Superchargers rejects charging their car and the only way to release the 'rejection' is to pay another fee of some sort. This should it a better day for all considerate and respectful Tesla Owners!

On the ICED and parking unplugged then Tesla really ought to work with their partners i.e. mall operators to really enforce perhaps a 'clamping' / 'towing away' approach. But this option has a lower % of happening, with the mall operators having to potentially fork out more manpower.

I think it is a great solution, and really hope that Tesla can effectively implement this.

From what I see, overstaying after charging is 100x the problem of ICE cars in superchargers in Hong Kong. Anyway, that is a parking signage and enforcement problem, irrelevant to the issue of Tesla's overstaying. As one commentator wrote "the supercharger spots here are always full, so the ICE vehicles don't want to queue".

Good news. Something many of us asked for since long ago and markwj was right, Tesla has to implement this effectively

HK$3.1 per minute is probably not expensive enough for some and "billed for any idle fees incurred at your next Service Center visit" may not be good enough. You can skip service centre visit unless you are under the Resale Value Guarantee programme. Better if they can make this as troublesome as possible - pay outstanding idle fee in person or you can't start the next supercharging session. You waste someone else 10 minutes, you gonna spend that amount of time or even more yourself for remedial. Apart from making things fair for everyone, this will also serve those who are rich "enough" to park at supercharging slot well.

We don't have ICE cars parked at supercharger slot nowadays. Tesla pretty much makes all slots exclusive for charging Tesla cars and for places it doesn't, the slots are simply always full for any ICE car to park there

Maybe Tesla should go one step further in forcing all owners to register a credit card or bank account so that the supercharger idle fee would be charged onto instead of in the next service center visit. This would make the monetary impact more immediate.

I am concerned about the 'pay at service centre' part of this. Those guys are under enough stress already without having to deal with customers arguing about whether or not they overstayed 10mins at a supercharger six months prior to the service centre visit. I _really_ hope that Tesla makes this 100% clear to the users. And remember that not everyone has cellphones with Tesla's App notifications.

I am concerned about the 'pay at service centre' part of this. Those guys are under enough stress already without having to deal with customers arguing about whether or not they overstayed 10mins at a supercharger six months prior to the service centre visit. I _really_ hope that Tesla makes this 100% clear to the users. And remember that not everyone has cellphones with Tesla's App notifications.

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Mark, I agree that a better solution for payment need to be found. I would support frangus6's suggestion to register a bank account credit card and to debit that instantly rather than 6 to 12 months down the road. Can imagine the scene at the Tesla Service Centre. They definitely do not need this on their plate.
I think the fee is having its intended effect because I am now finding it much easier to find an empty supercharging spot.

hopefully the simple implementation of a fee would be enough for the non-charging problem. personally i'm a bit more pessimistic, i know enough people that go with the "well, it's cheap enough to park there" mindset that this payment could probably become part of the rationalization/justification for hogging the spot

instead of a per-minute payment for being plugged in whilst charging, a decreasing charging credit may have some advantages. I'm sure, however, tesla has considered this already. elon tweeted that staying plugged in at a deserted supercharger area (i.e. with spots available and no one else charging) wont incur this fee.

as for ICEing superchargers spots, i don't think it's been common at all, partly due to the constant queue for the chargers anyway. i do see type-2 spots ICEed a lot of the time tho, but more car park management are now taking an active stance stopping ICE cars parking in those

When the idle fee balance reaches HK$1,000 it should trigger an e-mail to the owner of record and payment must be made within 30 days or Supercharger access will be disabled. Having a credit card on file for monthly billing or reaching HK$1,000 should be mandatory. In my mind, this should be handled through the MyTesla account. That's where they will do the Supercharger Credit system, so why not Idle Fees too?

Free supercharging in HK has always been a gimmick.. The whole point of supercharging is for long distance travel and road trips... where exactly would you do that in HK? I would say all superchargers in HK should have been fee based from the beginning....

Free supercharging in HK has always been a gimmick.. The whole point of supercharging is for long distance travel and road trips... where exactly would you do that in HK? I would say all superchargers in HK should have been fee based from the beginning....

Free supercharging in HK has always been a gimmick.. The whole point of supercharging is for long distance travel and road trips... where exactly would you do that in HK? I would say all superchargers in HK should have been fee based from the beginning....

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ELON MUSK:

We’re putting Superchargers in cities, not just between cities. And this is obviously important in places like, you know, Beijing, Shanghai, London, San Francisco, New York, where at times people may have a challenge with having a fixed parking space. It’s more like some of those people don’t have a definitive parking space. And they might have street parking or something, you know. London is particularly tricky one; where there’s – it’s got lot of high-end neighborhoods just have street parking.

Mark, I agree that a better solution for payment need to be found. I would support frangus6's suggestion to register a bank account credit card and to debit that instantly rather than 6 to 12 months down the road. Can imagine the scene at the Tesla Service Centre. They definitely do not need this on their plate.
I think the fee is having its intended effect because I am now finding it much easier to find an empty supercharging spot.

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And to address the issue of not everyone having the app for notifications, I would further suggest that as a condition for using the supercharger, a mobile phone number and e-mail must also be registered in addition to a credit/debit card. That way a message can be sent as well as money instantly debited. Any other system that works is better than the inevitable chaos at the Service Centre if the customer is only charged months down the road.

Another good idea to avoid the inevitable "I didn't know" excuses months later at the service center: at busy Superchargers where an idle fee will be charged, display a message on the center screen that says "Supercharger Idle Fees will accrue when charging is complete. Help (button), Agree (button)". If you don't press Agree, Supercharging will not start. This message would appear any time the car is put in Park in the vicinity of a Supercharger with Idle fees active.

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